The Widow Clicquot by Tilar J Mazzeo is clearly a labor of love. The author goes into painstaking detail regarding a fairly obscure part of French history to tell us the story of a remarkable woman and by extension the story of how Champagne became the bubbly we love today. Barbe-Nicole Cliquot (nee Ponsardin)lived during the French revolution and would no doubt be even more obscure than she is had she not been pushed into business by the untimely death of her husband.
Mazzeo does a great job of bringing Barbe-Nicole to life even while acknowledging the places where the historical records are thin. She is able to educate the reader on a number of subjects, including wine making and French history, without losing sight of the main character.

I love champagne, especially The Widow; I love France and history and stories about brave women.

I didn't love this book.

Mazzeo couldn't decide what sort of book she was writing. It's not a scholarly study (for all that she splashes her degree across the title page) nor - as several other reviewers point out - is it quite a work of fiction. It's almost a personal memoir - too personal for my taste - but it misses the mark there, too.

Certanily Mazzeo wants to impress us. She tries very hard to make Barbe-Nicole Clicquot a metaphor for women in history, for the narrative of white space, for all those unvoiced shuttles, but she has this horridly Sarah Palin-esqe tendency to get cute about it -- the thinner the facts, the more adorable the narration.

There are two sorts of biographies: those which contain facts and analysis and those which speculate. This is the latter.

The word "surely" appears on every page.

OK, not much is known about Madame Clicquot (whom Mazzeo relentlessly and patronizingly refers to by her first name); but a great deal is known about the history of Reims and the champagne industry. Mazzeo has done admirable work on this and if she would just give it to the reader, all would be well. But she wants to be a biographer, and this leads her down a dubious path.

The most important critical/theoretical work on women's biography is the late Carolyn Heilbrun's path-making Writing a Woman's Life Writing a Woman's Life (Ballantine Reader's Circle). Mazzeo must have read it, since she brings out various of its insights with girlish glee, but she never cites it. And she misses the big point, even as she laments the lack of a women's history. The point is this: women's lives don't follow the same paradigms as men's lives. Yes, Mazzeo says this, but -- rather like the Wife of Bath - she paints a very patriarchal lion even as she objects to the paradigm.

As for her pretentions to scholarship, there's the opening line of her final chapter in which she proudly informs us that the Oxford English Dictionary STILL lists "champagne" as a meaning for "widow."

Well duh. The OED STILL lists every meaning ever attached to a word. That's the whole point. What the point of this book is, I'm not sure. Not tenure, I hope.

This is yet another book project that cannot fail - the source materials and corollary knowledge easily sells the work - and yet it managed to fall tremendously flat. Between trademark-orange covers (one wonders how she managed to secure this surely-copyrighted color), we have a pseudo-biography of a historically notable woman written by a beautiful (with obligatory cover photo) young woman professor with a gorgeously exotic name. This is what one calls a "perfect marketing storm." We know we are in for a fizzy treat of "this person is important because she is a woman in business/history" and I am more than willing to drink that cup. Ah, but beware the lees! The imagined insights into her mind were both presumptuous and insignificant - a difficult feat in itself! On the one hand we were invited to celebrate a woman who did little more than spend male investments and lend her name to a product she did not invent. Her one significant contribution to the art of champagne - remuage sur pupitre (a new method of disgorging the dead yeast cells from the bottle during fermentation) - was dubiously chronicled and under-narrated. On the other hand, we were asked to forgive her bourgeois callousness as she lamented difficult sales - particularly difficult for her male agents risking life abroad - of her luxury product to people often on the edge of starvation in Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic France, Russia, and Great Britain. The other presumably unintended effect of her rise, the closing of the corporate door on other women in business, should also, according to the author's prose, be largely ignored. As should be her law-breaking to secure a monopoly in Russia. As should her exclusion of her own daughter and grand-daughter from the family business. As should her iron-fisted matriarch behavior. You get the point...
For all my complaints, I would readily forgive the flaws if the portrait of the woman involved were in any way fleshed out, or if any new material came to light, or if any of the "mysteries" and/or scandals of her life - particularly the dubious matter of the clerk Eduouard Werlé who somehow had the millions necessary to become a full partner - were in any way clarified by her research. Sadly, even her knowledge of French language is deficient (a woman does not "assist" at a ball, "assister à" = "to attend a function") and her glaring errors around Louis' infamous dictum, l'État, c'est moi (never happened) and her assertion that "champagne had always been the drink of kings" are just plain gratuitous for a product that had only recently (less than 50 years) been invented.
Lord, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me.

I love champagne, especially The Widow; I love France and history and stories about brave women.
I didn't love this book.

After reading it, I spent a week wondering why I didn't like it, and finally decided that it's because Mazzeo couldn't decide what sort of book she was writing. It's not a scholarly study (for all that she splashes her degree across the title page) nor - as several other reviewers point out - is it quite a work of fiction. It's almost a personal memoir - too personal for my taste - but it misses the mark there, too.

Certanily Mazzeo wants to impress us. She tries very hard to make Barbe-Nicole Clicquot a metaphor for women in history, for the narrative of white space, for all those unvoiced shuttles, but she has this horridly Sarah Palin-esqe tendency to get cute about it -- the thinner the facts, the more adorable the narration.

There are two sorts of biographies: those which contain facts and analysis and those which speculate. This is the latter.

The word "surely" appears on every page.

OK, not much is known about Madame Clicquot (whom Mazzeo relentlessly and patronizingly refers to by her first name); but a great deal is known about the history of Reims and the champagne industry. Mazzeo has done admirable work on this and if she would just give it to the reader, all would be well. But she wants to be a biographer, and this leads her down a dubious path.

The most important critical/theoretical work on women's biography is the late Carolyn Heilbrun's path-making Writing Women's Lives. Mazzeo must have read it, since she brings out various of its insights with girlish glee, but she never cites it. And she misses the big point, even as she laments the lack of a women's history. The point is this: women's lives don't follow the same paradigms as men's lives. Yes, Mazzeo says this, but -- rather like the Wife of Bath - she paints a very patriarchal lion even as she objects to the paradigm.

As for her pretentions to scholarship, there's the opening line of her final chapter in which she proudly informs us that the Oxford English Dictionary STILL lists "champagne" as a meaning for "widow."
"
Well duh. The OED STILL lists every meaning ever attached to a word. That's the whole point. What the point of this book is, I'm not sure. Not tenure, I hope.

Now, I know it is more than sheer enjoyment of a bottle of bubbly, but also because it was founded and run by a woman.
I am very sad that so little of Barbe Nicole's life survived in letters and journals, from what is recounted in the book, I am convinced she was a formidable woman who showed true grit and bravery in a time when women were seen and not heard.
She took big risks and in the end reaped grand rewards for herself and for her family. I am deeply in awe.
I love the delicious notes on how champagne is made, because it helped me understand what exactly she was struggling to accomplish and against what odds.
I also found out where the nutty flavor in some champagnes come from.
It was a fascinating read. I recommend it if you are at all interested in women's history or wine.

The Widow Cliquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It - was wonderful and exposed me to a field that I knew nothing about. As a historic biography this is a page turner, easy to read and pulled me in.

What really stood out to me and carried through this book was the author's - Tilar J. Mazzeo - obvious passion for the study of wine and she did a great job of bringing to life what could easily have been a "dry" or "brut" subject! LOL!

Tilar Mazzeo tells a good story. One of the few female business heads of her era, "the widow" managed to grow a distinctive business based on her own strengths, leadership, and business judgement (ie. daring). Her story is lively and told in what I think of as high journalistic mode. The writing moves along swiftly, but rests on cliche or standard journalistic phrases a little too much for my taste. Nevertheless, enjoyable and illuminating and well-structured.

The book is well-researched and footnoted to just the right degree. Interested readers can follow the sources and learn more, but we are not battered with scholarly apparatus.

Mazzeo struggled with the lack of personal information and personal documentation of her heroine's life. There is no personal diary, and few other personal records. This means that some of the book must be speculative. However, the speculation is carefully marked and never goes overboard. This is not a novel, and is not trying to be.

All in all, a good read.

I knew nothing about Clicquot except for the fact that the bottle is a familiar staple in our house every holiday season. So this was a much anticipated read. I enjoyed the eye opening look at the champagne making business. The history of the family is intriguing. Though, I found the writing style a bit too dry for such a potentially fascinating tale.

My major impression of this book is that it must hard to write a book about a figure about whom so little known is really known. Women of her time--even impressive women like Barbe-Nicole Cliquot Ponsardin (1777-1866)--were usually relegated to the nursery or drawing room, hardly the subjects who got written about when men were doing such daring deeds by comparison. So Mazzeo had to piece together her story from just a few facts about the widow and a lot of informed speculation drawn from other sources. Her research is impressive, weaving together the amazing years of the French Revolution and Napoleon's era with the story of the burgeoning champagne industry. By necessity, therefore, when Mazzeo refers to her subject she has to make inferences, so she begins many sentences with "perhaps this" or "maybe that." At book's end, the reader wonders how much of this "biography" was fact and how much plausible fiction.

Undoubtedly, however, Barbe-Nicole was an amazing individual. She married well at 20, and the affluent parents of the bride and groom gave them a wealthy start in life. The couple used this capital to invest in their fledging wine business, which they did with commendable effort and enthusiasm. When her husband died when she was just 27, she took over the reins. Steering the company through dizzying political and financial reversals, she became one of the world's first great businesswomen and one of the richest women of her time. She also made significant contributions to the wine-making industry and was a role model to her female descendants. But this book is best read as a loving look at the development of champagne, a task at which it excels . . .

I wanted this book to be fabulous more than you can imagine. I was so excited about reading this. I love Veuve Clicquot Champagne, the simple orange label to la Grande Dame. I'd heard while in France that she was something of an unusual woman, not exactly beautiful, but she did amazing things.

So there's this book. At first look you would swear this was somebody's thesis. It's around 270 pages. A big read right? Well wrong, there's about 70 pages of footnotes, acknowledgements, and index. The story is really only less than 200 pages long. Then there's the repitition. I got very tired of more or less the same thing said over and over again.

The bad part of the book: virtually every single sentance starts off with either "imagine this", or "might have", "must have", "could have", "had to".... I think Ms. Mazzeo found every possible word in the English language to say - I don't really know what happened, but this certainly could have happened. It got very very very tiresome after the first 50 pages.

The worst part of this book: Ms. Mazzeo simply tells us very basic simple things about wine making and French history. There's nothing new here, nothing revolutionary, nothing compelling.

The crime of this book: it wasn't made into a story where I really cared about anyone in the book. People died, and it was just a fact repeated 5 or 6 times with no emotional connection. I wanted to be drawn in. Instead I was barraged with fact after fact.

I gave this book 2 stars because there is some level of completeness and Ms. Mazzeo must have spent a long time writing this book. It's two stars just because she tried.

I certainly hope she was awarded her pHD.

Imagine it is sometime in the mid-nineteenth century and we are sitting in a gambling den in London among a group of aristocratic young rakes. After a while, the cry goes out: "A bottle of the Widow!" This seemingly obscure evocation is enough to bring the thirsty patron one of the most-recognized luxury items of his day: a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin champagne.

Who was the Widow Clicquot Ponsardin, and how did she give her name to one of the greatest champagne empires the world has ever known? That is the subject of a fascinating new biography by Tilar J. Mazzeo. She describes what can be known of the life of a remarkable Nineteenth-Century French woman who during the course of her eighty-nine years experienced tragedy, Revolution, war and ultimate triumph. In an age when most women of her class were expected to live anonymous lives raising children, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot founded a commercial empire and ran it for nearly seventy years. She lived to see her chidren and grandchildren ascend to the aristocracy based on her tremendous success as a businesswoman.

Her family was already well-off by the time she was born, enough so that she nearly lost her life in the French Revolution. The family business was textiles, not champagne. The brief years of her marriage were spent in a futile attempt to make a go at the champagne business with her husband Francois. Only after his death was the business a success. Geopolitical events conspired against them: this was the age of Napoleon and war, blockades and prejudice against French products all made it remarkably difficult to sell champagne on the European market. Ironically, Russia, where Napoleon would meet his great defeat, eventually became her best customer.

After Francois died, Barbe-Nicole never remarried. This gave her a unique opportunity to take over the champagne business and to run it herself. Although women rarely ran business enterprises in Nineteenth-Century France, it was not unheard of for a widow to operate a champagne business after her husband's death. What distinguished Barbe-Nicole was her enormous ambition and competitive streak, her keen business sense, and her willingness to run huge risks to build her business. Over the course of seventy years, she overcame extreme adversity to build a champagne empire worth billions in today's dollars.

Tilar Mazzeo charts the rocky story of Barbe-Nicole's life for us in an entertaining and even suspenseful manner. Along the way, we learn a lot about the history of champagne, the way it is manufactured, what makes for its different blends and qualities, and how it was bottled, stored and shipped during the Nineteenth Century. We discovery, for example, that Barbe-Nicole invented "remuage," a technique of clearing debris from champagne bottles, that eventually allowed for more speedy mass production. We learn about the spectacular vintage of 1811 and the delicate conditions under which champagne had to be stored. The descriptions of champagne were so vivid that at times, reading this book made me very thirsty for a good glass of bubbly.

"The Widow Cliquot" is a fun history of one woman's life and the business of champagne. It reads well and quickly and I found it quite entertaining.

I read The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty recently, and I just finished reading Widow Clicquot. I never knew the wine business was so interesting! This book captures the dynamic story of a strong, independent woman who makes a name for herself in the wine industry. There is so much emotion in "The Widow Clicquot" and the author's descriptive writing style allows the reader to really dive into the book--reading should be an experience, and with this book, it is.

It's a great light read; I would recommend it.

As an educated fanatic of all things of 18th century French origin, it was with great anticipation that I waited for my copy of The Widow Cliquot to arrive in my mailbox. I was enormously excited to read about a woman who lived through a revolution and a restoration only to establish a thriving commercial enterprise (and all during a time when women were not accepted in the business world).

So you can imagine my slight disappoinment when I discovered that the book was more about the history of champagne making than the private life of Barbe-Nicole. I thought the writing was solid and engaging, but often strayed from the subject matter: The Widow.

I found myself wanting to know more about the woman - her likes, dislikes, the challenges she faced as a female owner of a male driven business, what she felt about her husband.

I would have liked to have read some of her letters or excerpts from her journals. I also think there should have been artwork - portraits of the people mentioned, engravings of the art of champagne making, and paintings of The Widows estates.

All in all a good read, but a trifle flat.

This book was an interesting way to lead into the holidays, the season of champagne! It moved along quickly, and held my interest the entire time. This is an excellent book to prepare you for those uncomfortable small talk moments at holiday parties. There is almost always champagne at those parties, and there are some really interesting points in this book that would serve as excellent conversation starters.

There are 100 reasons Barb-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin should have failed at managing, leading, and growing her small family winery. In 1798, Moet had market share. Temperature and potholes burst bottles in horse drawn wagons, before railways existed.
The Napoleonic Wars of Revolutionary France blockaded borders for international sales with Britain & Russia. John Adam's US was purchasing Louisiana, but not champagne.
In 1802, her German salesman's first foray to Britain was disastrous. His first attempt at cracking the Russian market in 1804 proved fatal. Then her husband died.
Set in the industrial revolution, Tilar Mazzeo weaves a grand tale of what Barb-Nicole, the widow entrepreneur, overcomes; wars, bank failures, near bankruptcy, blockades, bans, politics, recessions, family tragedy, failed harvests, and exploding bottles. She presents a determined business leader focused on expanding sales, increasing production, innovating products, inventing and testing, accounting tenaciously, and guarding intellectual property.
Near the nadir, The Widow Clicquot had a stellar 1811 grape harvest, which she had to protect against Russian soldiers occupying Reims and bankroll until borders re-opened. Clicquot's decisions leading up to her 1814 end-run and coup of the Russian market, securing solvency, is an inspiring case study in branding, marketing, & business strategy.
Read The Widow Clicquot for European History viewed from one company's books in Reims, France, where King's were crowned, and where Barb-Nicole made fortunes.

Given the fact that there are very few sources for the study of this particular person, the author does a skillful job of interweaving that information, her own experience of the region, contemporary sources, and her own informed speculations. The family details are fascinating, and the reader will learn a great deal not only about the famous Widow but also about the cultural history of wine and sparkling wine, and about the atmosphere of the age. I am always delighted when scholars manage to communicate effectively with a non-scholarly audience; this is just such a book.

One irritating detail to be corrected: millions of readers east of the Elbe River would be surprised to learn that Sekt as a sparkling wine product has disappeared. I love Sekt as do many of German, Czech, and Polish friends. You can buy it everywhere in Germany.

A dry book, historically informative, but uninteresting.
Get it from the library, read it to improve your mind, but don't waste shelf space buying it. (Read "The Billionaire's Vinegar" instead.)

This is the story of probably the most famous female "CEO" (had such a title existed at the time) in history, and the product to which she gave her name. Widowed young, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot-Ponsardin struggled to create what became one of the great champagne houses. How she did it is a fascinating story.

What sets this book apart from mere biographies is the way Mazzeo relates birth and growth of Veuve Clicquot to the political and social history of France and Europe. Barbe-Nicole was born to an ambitious bourgeois family in Reims a decade before the French Revolution. Her father threaded his way successfully through revolution and régime changes, and his daughter clearly inherited his ability to move with the tides of circumstance. The Napoléonic Wars, with their shifting alliances, made the shipment and sale of her product hazardous at best, but she persevered.

Mazzeo, rightly, I think, also points out that Mme. Clicquot-Ponsardin's timing was fortuitous. She was building her business right at the time when manufacture was transitioning from small, family-owned businesses to larger firms. As a result, women were transitioning from being active partners in these businesses to being the visible sign of success, but being relegated to the domestic and social scene. She was not too early to take advantage of the first change, nor so late that she was restricted by the second. In comparing Barbe-Nicole's life to that she desired and achieved) for her daughter and grand-daughter, Mazzeo teaches us something not only about the lives of these women, but of an entire class of women.

The author's enthusiasm for her subject clearly shines through in her WONDERFUL and comprehensive writing.
The author really nails it even in the first few pages of the "Prologue". The writing is so "tight" that it turns the book from a biography, into a "joy of words".
An interesting and inspirational story takes us thorough the struggle of one woman's rise in the male dominated business and science of making and marketing wine. You won't ever look at the Orange label the same way again. The book should be like champagne itself, enjoyed and shared.

This is not an historical fiction novel along the lines of Philippa Gregory books. It is a pure factual biography of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, though it is as much if not more so a history of the birth and rise of champagne. It seemed the book taught us less about the Widow as a person, than it did about the evolution of production of champagne, the marketing of it across Europe and Asia, and the politics of running a large scale business through the years of revolution in France.

The facts in the book I found most interesting, were always about wine and business and not the Widow Clicquot. Overall I found it interesting. However, I was a little surprised to find that the final third of the book is taken up by references and notes!

This is a terrific book on many levels. As an historical opus, it is sublime. As a character study of a pioneering woman ahead of her time, it is unsurpassed. As a study of the wine & champagne industry, it educates the reader in an enjoyable and thrilling way.

To write a great book, the author must be adept in turning a phrase. More importantly, Passion for the subject must ring true. This author, Tilar Mazzeo, is clearly enamored of her study. This is evident from the first sentence of the book until the last.

The Widow Cliquot chronicles the life's work of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, "the Grand Lady of Champagne".

Widowed at the untimely age of twenty seven, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot had to forge a new life for herself. Her fortune was inextricably tied to the nascent sparkling wine industry from the region of Champagne. Through sheer audacity & strength of will she built an empire that remains to this day. Champagne Cliquot is so much more than the orange label or the favorite Champagne of James Bond-it is an effervescent part of history!

This book is extraordinarily well-written. The pages fly by as the reader explores the 19th Century World of the Sparkling Wine Industry. Prior to the emergence of Champagne, a sparkling wine was a wine that had fermented and gone bad. If life gives you lemons, make lemonade! could be the modern day mantra of the enterprising Widow Cliquot. She turned the tragedy of bubbling wine into a unique success story.

The book captivates the reader and takes one on a remarkable journey through the world of the methode champagnoise in 19th Century France. Against the backdrop of Napoleonic France, The onslaught of Prussian soldiers, and various other hardships, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot prevails.

Her story is wonderful-a story for any epoch.

This is a truly enjoyable book. My only regret is that I inevitably turned the last page and The Widow Cliquot's remarkable history came to a close.

I heartily recommend this book! Cheers!

Veuve Clicquot is one of the premier champagnes of the world. This book tells the remarkable story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who was widowed before she was 30. Nevertheless, she took control of the business she and her husband had started and went on to create and manage a highly successful international commercial empire in the wine trade. She had to ignore the gender expectations of her time (and of a number of subsequent generations) to do so. The story is an interesting one, full of ups and downs, mishaps, and occasional misjudgements. These are fairly well documented in the records of the company. What is missing is much of anything about Barbe-Nicole herself beyond what she did. There are no diaries, collections of personal letters, etc. As a result, Mazzeo is forced to speculate on what the woman thought or felt. The speculations are not outlandish, but the absence of documents is a drawback. Mazzeo writes decently and tells an interesting story, but it is not especially compelling. It is a "must read" only for those looking into the history of women as entrepreneurs.

Tilar J. Mazzeo, author of three previous books including one partially on Frankenstein's creator Mary Shelley, has done a brilliant job in presenting a most readable biography of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Cliquot, "La Grande Dame" of champagne. While many of her conclusions are suppositions based on probability and circumstantial evidence, due to a dearth of previous scholarship on the life of this amazing woman, Mazzeo gives us front and center stage in an educational and informative account of the life of Barbe-Nicole against the backdrop of French history and the origins and development of the famous champagne still known to us today. Oh, to be in Paris as I was seven years ago and able to buy a bottle of Veuve-Cliquot for a mere $18.00! Barbe-Nicole was born in Reims (prounounced "Rans"), the heart of the Champagne district, not far from Paris. She was a young girl in a convent school when the French Revolution broke out in 1789. Fearful for her life, her aristocratic family spirited her away back home, and her father began living a double life as a leader in revolutionary politics while maintaining a luxurious lifestyle for the family. At a young age she was married in a secret ceremony in a damp cellar (Catholicism had been outlawed by the Revolution and the churches shut) to Francois Cliquot. Gradually the couple began increasingly diversifying their family business, the mainstay of which was in the textile trade, increasing their sideline of producing and marketing wine. Francois hit the road as a traveling salesman, one of the first to seek out high-toned buyers and helped begin the practice of wine tastings to sell the product. Widowed at age 27, Barbe-Nicole took over the wine business and made a name for herself as one of the first great female entrepreneurs. I learned a lot from this book, including:
-- The myth that the monk Dom Perignon was the creator of champagne, when in fact he was trying only to get the troublesome bubbles out of fermenting wine. The first sparkling wines in fact were created in England by the British.
-- Three different grape varieties (not just Chardonnay) go into the blend to produce true Champagne. The other two are Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
-- Champagne originally was extremely sweet and it was not for many years that dryer varieties began being produced.
-- Napoleon played a huge role in promoting the development and refinement of champagne. He had a special passion for bubbly, and after coming to power, he ordered mass distribution to all wine producers of the newly-published treatise "The Art of Controlling and Perfecting Wines" by Jean-Antoine Chaptel.
This book is best enjoyed with a properly chilled bottle of Veuve-Cliquot Ponsardin. It's a well-written book and a must for anyone interested in the history of wine.

Appreciating wine and champagne and having enjoyed Clicquot, I believed I would uncover a very engrossing bio of The Widow.
Unfortunately, just as the title of this review, it was filled with suppositions....she might have, probably, possibly, perhaps etc. There was no real documentation and very little emotion conveyed. The technical aspects of the development of champagne were somewhat interesting, but I expected to be reading about the widow and her documented personal journey.
It seemed to go on and on and truthfully, while I appreciated the widow's efforts, I wound up not really caring. I saw no real depth to her character. Yes, the times were an extraordinary challenge...but, a challenge to produce wine....what about the challenge of those who were truly impacted by the politics and conflicts of the time?
Having become familiar with many of today's female winemakers, I am certain that Barbe Nicole is somewhat of an inspiration. I have read some of their stories and I was truly impressed by their hard work, physically and mentally, to become a success. Many of them truly incorporated their families and friends in a beautiful and challenging career.

"The Widow Clicquot" is the story of the woman behind the Veuve Clicquot brand name, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, who revolutionized the champagne industry in the early 19th century, amidst political turmoil and economic strife in Napoleonic France, to bring her champagne to nearly all of Europe and make it the most recognizable luxury product in the world. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot is credited with three great achievements in the wine industry: creating an international market for champagne, establishing brand identification, and with inventing a method of disgorging debris from the bottle that sped up production significantly. In "The Widow Clicquot", author Tilar Mazzeo attempts to discover the woman behind the brand, a child of the French Revolution who worked unceasingly to build a commercial empire just as women were increasingly excluded from the business world.

Champagne has been produced commercially since the 17th century, but interest in the product was dwindling by the end of the 18th. Then between 1790 and 1830, sales increased 1000% to over 5 million bottles a year. Barbe-Nicole Clicqout deserves much of the credit. The author follows her life from her bourgeois childhood as the daughter of a prominent and politically pragmatic textile manufacturer to her marriage to Francois Clicquot, son of another textile family that also owned a small wine brokerage for which the couple had high hopes. But not long after they began blending and bottling their own wines, Francois died. Barbe-Nicole carried on. It looked like the worst possible time to take her product to the international market. The Napoleonic Wars brought trade embargos, blockades, and taxes. But with her tireless salesman Louis Bohne, the luck of the Russian occupation of Reims, and a good deal of daring, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot grabbed huge market share.

"The Widow Clicquot" tells the story of both the business and the woman behind it, but the story of the company is the easier to reconstruct, as its records and correspondence are archived. Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, herself, is more elusive. Tilar Mazzeo has reconstructed her family life and the ambition she had for her company as best as she can ascertain. But there are no private diaries to rely upon, and very little personal correspondence is extant. It is through her business dealings that Barbe-Nicole's personality and intelligence left their stamp on history. For this reason, the author can only speculate about how the lady felt or what she thought, and there is a little too much of that for my taste in the book's early chapters. But "The Widow Clicquot" is well-written, informative, and brings Barbe-Nicole alive for the reader. Historians and champagne aficionados are sure to enjoy it.

THE WIDOW CICQUOT: THE STORY OF A CHAMPAGNE EMPIRE AND THE WOMAN WHO RULED IT is a fascinating biography about the matriarch of one of France's most well-renowned champagne companies, Vueuve Clicquot, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin. Cultural Historian Tilar J. Mazzeo narrates the life of Clicquot and how it parallels with the most pivotal periods in French history from the French Revolution to France's Industrial Revolution. But most importantly, Mazzeo acknowledges Clicquot's contribution to French society in terms of of women's roles and in particular, as the head of the household.

One may wonder who this book may appeal to. THE WIDOW CLICQUOT may interest those who have the curiosity of reading about the average product and the history behind it that goes beyond the label. And with the first glance of reading the introduction, it is just that element, which inspired Mazzeo to write this insightful biography that puts a human face with the label of the champagne.

THE WIDOW OF CLICQUOT is an interesting read. The book is a nice addition to a collection of books that pertain to cultural as well as popular history. And it is another aspect about the subject of history and biography that provides a dimension that enriches one's knowledge and understanding the people, places, and objects that are relevant or once was not considered significant.

Tilar Mazzeo's The Widow Cliquot tells the story of one of the most interesting of the early champagne tycoons: a woman who, in the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, founded a dynasty. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the daughter of a prosperous Reims merchant, married into the Cliquot family, who sold both cloth and wine. After her husband's death, she chose to continue running the family's wine business, concentrating on the fizzy wine we now call champagne.

The Widow Clicquot faced long odds-indeed, she was a true gambler-because travel was hazardous and much of the export market was closed. Still, she clung to her vision with a remarkable tenacity and was ultimately successful-Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin is still one of the best known champagne houses in the world.

The book has a great deal of interesting information on the history and production of champagne-this gives the Widow's life some context. Mazzeo's finest moment is her taut telling of the delivery of the 1811 vintage under the specter of war in 1813. Mazzeo clearly sets the scene and lets the reader know just how high the stakes are. We really get a sense of the menace-and triumph-of the Widow's life.

Much of what happens after that drama, which falls about in the middle of the book, is unfortunately anti-climax. Mazzeo's problem is that there simply aren't any sources to guide her: since the Widow left scanty records of her personal life, we just don't know what was going on there. It's no coincidence that a well-documented episode from the Widow's business career is the best part of the book: clearly, there were solid sources to ground the story here.

There also seems to be a great deal of telling, rather than showing in the narrative. Time and again, the reader is told that Barbe-Nicole was an exceptional woman, and that she couldn't have been successful had she started her career a few years earlier or a few years later. We are also reminded frequently that Barbe-Nicole was middle class-but she came from one of the wealthiest families in Reims and ultimately ran a multi-billion dollar (in today's terms) business empire. True, she was not a titled noble, but today's audiences might not consider a woman born to her privilege and riches "middle class."

Much of the problem is apparent in the title-it's just too wordy for its own good. Why not "The Widow Cliquot: The Woman Who Ruled a Champagne Empire?" The book suffers similarly-though it's less than 200 pages, it still feels repetitious and over-long at points.

It's too bad, because Mazzeo has an great story to tell, and where she's got the benefit of solid sources, she's does a fine job. Perhaps this story would have worked better as one chapter in a book devoted to similar pioneers? It's certainly a good read, and a story that more people should know about.

As Prof. Mazzeo forthrightly admits, there's little written record about Barbe-Nicole Cliquot Ponsardin. Even if she had been a man I wonder how much of a written record would have survived. That said, Prof. Mazzeo faces the natural difficulty of how to put flesh on the bones of what she's been able to glean and to do so in an honest way. As a lawyer and faculty-brat I appreciate her hedging with words like "perhaps". And in fairness to her, she doesn't do it everywhere. For instance, her discussion of Cliquot's insight into a process for clearing sediments before final corking (the description itself seems incomplete to me) actually is a good read.

As a reader I definitely think the book worth receiving with a bottle of Cliquot bubbly (sadly, my present means confine me to the non-vintage bottles for those home-dinner dates and the like), but I wouldn't try reading this book with glass in hand. As a sit-down read, it is a flat slog, not sparkling or effervescent. The writing style is too pedantic to be a page-turner. Yet, picking it up and opening it at random, there is interesting information about the times, about the woman, about winemaking that can be quickly grasped before the flat drone overcomes you and you have to put the book down again.

The index had not been prepared when my copy was printed so I'm curious what it will contain. I'm curious to see what 18th and early 19th century American purchasers (Jefferson?) it might note (as I continue to open this book at random and read a bit, perhaps I'll find out on my own).

There is much here too for the female English major, what with family jewels having to be sold at royal courts to maintain the business, and a daughter sent off to convent school (apparently as was customary for women of that class at the time as the author reports in one sentence and in the next blithely characterizes it as a painful balance struck between child-rearing and running the business) and later the daughter returns and, under watchful eyes, is wooed. At those points I put the book down and take a Guybreak.

So guys, I guess you could think of this book as an accompanying gift with a bottle of bubbly for someone special to you (particularly a female English major, but not necessarily). My mother likes the Widow's champagne, so I'll give her the book and a bottle of bubbly. Cheers!

Page 166: "During the first quarter century of Barbe-Nicole's life, there are scant details that reflect the woman behind the name. In the last quarter of her life, it is very much the same," and one suspects, after reading the book, a similar paucity of details during the interim 40 years.

So how does an author approach the task of writing a biography with few verifible details? One must either present a factual account of the historical events surrounding and influencing the subject's life OR construct a fictionalized biography. The former results in enlightenment, the latter, in entertainment. Unfortunately, Ms. Mazzeo tried to achieve the benefits achieved by both approaches.

The historical content is reason enough to buy this book, but be prepared for a multitude of annoying phrases such as "it seems, they doubtless, likely/unlikely, we have to imagine, probably, I expect, must have/might have, perhaps ..." that the author used in trying to bring her subject to life. It just doesn't work. The enormous research undertaken is apparent, but the resultant book leans towards dullness.

Worth reading? Yes. But in the hands of an imaginative writer of fiction, I believe that that same research could have resulted in an enormously entertaining read.

A wonderful book for any Francophile interested not only in the story of the widow, but in the history and finely calibrated evolution of champagne. Reaching back to origins and forward to the Enlightenment, the Clicquot story is one of those complicated and surprising chain of events you might expect to find on the James Burke "Connections" series: social trends, weather patterns, learned behavior and the steady effort to understand the attributes and actions of the physical world all play a part -- with all due credit to the unique personality and purpose of a woman who established one of the finest labels in the world. But the reading is a bit demanding, too often something of a slog. Some of the sentences simply do not qualify as legitimate grammatical constructs, and many of the historical anecdotes and terminology -- especially concerning early champagnes, their distribution, names and characteristics, are presented in an almost hopeless jumble, requiring that the reader keep a pad and pencil close at hand, to list and then reorder what amounts to an enormous amount of information. Perhaps all this will go down a bit more smoothly with another glass of bubbly...

While I'm more of a Belgian ale fan, I do enjoy sparkling wine occasionally. The Widow Clicquot is a nice mix of biography, wine history, and wine education. Sadly, and much to the author's frustration, little remains in the historic record of the personal life of this interesting woman. Records written in her own hand remain in her company's archives, and some business correspondence is extant that must give us a slight insight into her business personality, especially in communicating with her trusted partner and head sales rep. So the author is definitely excused for taking the liberty of letting her imagination intrude when speculating what Barb-Nicole may have felt during her long and full life.

Some readers, especially those already up to speed on wines, may find the wine history, terms, and current status rather intruding, as it is freely interspersed within the book's chapters. I found it rather engaging, as it moves both the biography and wine history along together. It is also appropriate, as Barb-Nicole lived during many of the developments in the emerging international champagne industry. (I have to admit a new longing to taste champagne as it was at the beginning of the 19th century...)

The book is well-researched, very readably written, and the author obviously truly enjoys her subjects. Salut!

Considering that the extent of my knowledge of wine (which I do love) is limited to 'red,' 'white,' and 'cheap,' I cannot say whether a wine expert would be disappointed in the lack of huge information about the champagne's vintages, production and the like. However, this is a riveting book which one can indulge in one gulp. The writing style reminded me of a first-rate journalist - well-written, capturing the reader's interest constantly, and with a deceptively simple style. Though, as the author freely admits, there is not much biographical documentation for Widow Clicquot, it is very evident that the book incorporates whatever could be found - and speculation is kept within modest bounds.

I believe most of us would find our heroine to be a fascinating woman of many dimensions - the 'self made' millionaire who had occasion to be involved with historical figures of all sorts. It is an interesting picture of an era and of one who fit no stereotypes of conformity.

I'd recommend this as an intriguing read.

The Widow Clicquot is the story of the woman behind one of the world's most famous and iconic champagnes. Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot was born in 1777 in Reims, and married an idealistic dreamer at a young age. When he died, Barbe-Nicole entered his family's business, and proved herself to be a shrewd businesswoman. Barbe-Nicole survived the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars (during which Napoleon apparently said that the vineyards of the Champagne would make perfect battlegrounds), and the civil wars of the mid-nineteenth century. She was a diminutive, nondescript woman, but she proved herself a force to be reckoned with in the champagne industry, turning a local curiosity into an international brand.

The book is a combination of things: its part biography, part story of the Veuve Clicquot empire, and part history of champagne-making in general (surprise! It wasn't the French who discovered the art of creating the now-famous bubbles). Although Barbe-Nicole was one of the most famous businesswomen of the nineteenth century, there's not much biography here, per se: the author tries to fill in gaps with a lot of conjecture, using phrases such as "perhaps she felt..." and "maybe..." Generally, storytelling that way is for me an attempt by an author to put words into people's mouths or thoughts into their heads that they might not actually have had. However, I thought the historical detail was quite good, as well as the descriptions of the techniques used to make champagne. Even I, as a non-connoisseur, was able to grasp what was going on there.

However, I expected more of a biography of Barbe-Nicole; I was very drawn by the story of an ordinary woman accomplishing extraordinary things. But what the reader is given here works, too: a lot of the book shows the author's passion for wine and its production. I just wish that there had been a bit more focus. That said however, the book inspired me to track down a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, just to see what all the fuss was about. This is the kind of book that's perfect for wine and champagne lovers.

Mazzeo sifted through a great amount of material to find anything of substance on the life of Widow Cliquot. Much of her story is lost to time, having never been recorded. Thankfully, some letters still exist as well as some few other primary sources of her time or shortly thereafter.

My kudos to the author for the amount of research she did, and especially for the wonderfully literate, information-packed, and yet still easily read way the Widow Cliquot's story is offered here.

I had great difficulty tearing myself away from the book, and so ended up reading it all in one shot. Cliquot's story is captivating in the amount of work she put into making her house a major Champagne player, developing new technologies, and changing Champagne's face in the world into the one drink most closely associated with good living, celebration, and high society. If not for Widow Cliquot's diligence and vision 200 years ago, Champage would have a very different place in the world today. Hers is a mesmerizing story, fascinating for it's historical location between the French Revolution and the end of the Napoleonic era, and inspiring for it being the story of a woman doing what a woman wasn't supposed to be doing (especially not a woman of such wealth and reknowned family). And Mazzeo's gifts as a story-teller are truly up to the greatness of the story she tells.

Mazzeo begins the story with the young Barbe-Nicole being snuck out of the convent school so she wouldn't be executed in the revolution. She takes us through the tumultuous years after the Revolution, wars with England and other countries, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the incredible changes in technology, industry, religiosity, and culture that swept through Europe and Russia in the years from the late 1700s into the mid-1800s. Mazzeo offers that history in concise and quick form, but doesn't cheat it of its depth, bouncing Cliquot's story against it and through all the way through the book. And she offers not only a history of the military stuff happening in Europe, but also the economic. How businesses were affected (especially Cliquot's business, of course), offering a more holistic history of the period than most historical textbooks I've been forced to slog through that seem to think that the only important facet of history is a litany of battles and generals.

This is truly an excellent history of a magnificent and inspiring woman through some of Europe's most interesting historical times - the beginning of the post-feudal post-monarchical modern era that we continue to live in. And an excellent history of what is (in my opinion, anyway) the best Champagne in the world, and also the history of Champagne itself.

For those interested in food, this is a must-have book, to sit on the shelf with "Salt", "Beef", "Cod", "Nathaniel's Nutmeg" and other recent books on the history of food. For those interested in European history, this is a must-have book. And for those interested in a history of bygone times that focuses on the people, not just the kings and generals, this is a must-have.

One warning, though - before you sit down to read, you better get yourself of Veuve Cliquot (or other Champagne - don't go sparkling wine on this one). I read this at a church youth retreat, so had no drink with me. I wish I had followed the advice I've just given, because the drink is mentioned so constantly, I felt awful not being able to taste it and enjoy it in the reading.

Definitely read it with a bottle of the good bubbly at your side. Maybe even in the bathtub while your butler brings you caviar.

This is not a wine geek account of the champagnes of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. You won't find tasting notes, vintage guides, production facts and figures, vineyard maps. It's about La Veuve, pure and simple. And that's not bad at all.

The author's viewpoint is stated elegantly in her introduction. She aims to tell "the story of a woman raised to be a wife and mother, left widowed before thirty with a small child, with no training and little experience of the world, who grasped firmly at the reins of her own destiny and, through sheer determination and talent, transformed a fledgling family wine trade into one of the great champagne houses of the world. Here, I thought, is a woman who refuses to compromise."

Indeed. We learn how, in the midst of political upheaval in France and the rest of Europe, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin went from the somewhat sheltered daughter of a successful Reims textile merchant; to the wife of something of a melancholic dilettante; to a widow suddenly left to manage a fledgling champagne business -- a woman alone in what was very much "a man's world" at the time. There are detours here and there to provide some basic information about the vineyards and the cellars, the evolution from early champagne in the sweet style to the modern fashion for brut champagne and other details. And of course, a thorough debunking of the myth of Dom Perignon.

But this is not a reference book on champagne for collectors or those looking to learn about the methode champenoise in intimate detail. It offers instead a colorful look at La Veuve herself, in her historical context. As the author discovered, the life of Barbe-Nicole is anything but well documented. But what she has pieced togther from a variety of sources -- including it seems her own imagination -- is an extremely touching and compelling portrait of a woman "who lived with audacity and intelligence" and "opened the road for new generations of women in the marketplace." Ironically, however, after the death of Barbe-Nicole, Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin was not headed by a woman again for well over a century.

This is a fascinating book, one that kept my attention from start to finish. Recommended.

To her last surviving great-grandchild Madame Clicquot writes, "I am going to tell you a secret... You more than anyone resemble me, you who have such audacity. It is a precious quality that has been very useful to me in the course of my long life... to dare things before others... I am called today the Grand Lady of Champagne!"

Coming from a genteel class, it was unusual in that day to run a business, these women instead, were expected to sit leisurely around drawing rooms in idle chatter.

Wines that sparkled was a wine that had gone bad. And beginning in the Middle Ages in the Champagne region of France, it was happening more and more. To turn this seeming catastrophe into a success put Champagne on the map. Second fermentation, a disaster for wine, was coaxed into happening in a bottle of champagne.

Clicquot became, in the nineteenth century, a premier name in Champagne. This book puts a face on that label.

This book is not only the very interesting story of Barbe-Nicole Clicquot but it is also full of very fascinating details about making wine, making champagne, labeling varietals, labeling quality. If you love wine you will really enjoy the history of this fascinating woman and the process of making wine.